


Rapunzel Meets Mulan

by esotaria (hermitcave)



Category: Mulan (1998), Tangled (2010)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-11-19
Updated: 2011-11-19
Packaged: 2017-10-26 07:04:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/280143
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hermitcave/pseuds/esotaria
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rapunzel has met a lot of interesting people since leaving her tower. But none have been so interesting as Fa Mulan.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rapunzel Meets Mulan

**Author's Note:**

> Part of a Tangled fic war with my friend Dove. Her prompt: Rapunzel meets another Disney princess of your choice. I cheated a little.

Almost immediately upon Rapunzel being returned to her parents and crowned princess, she was whisked away on an international tour. International relations were an important part of a princess' job, her mother informed her. And as she had been gone for so many years, she had not had the chance to accompany the King and Queen as they made their visits to other countries, to develop childhood friendships that would make adult diplomacy easier. A whirlwind tour was not the ideal situation, but such things must be remedied quickly.

Rapunzel didn't mind the traveling. She loved meeting new people and making new friends. And the other princesses were so interesting! She and Cinderella exchanged baking recipes and cleaning advice; Briar Rose had had the most interesting dreams in the 100 years she had been asleep, and Snow White knew the BEST jokes (even if they were a little off-color. She did, after all, pick them up from the dwarves).

But there was one name she kept hearing, hinted at in shadows but never directly discussed. Figuring that it was best to take the direct approach, Rapunzel went straight to her parents.

"Mother, Father, who is Mulan?"

The King and the Queen looked surprised. The Queen was the first to recover herself.

"Mulan is a famous warrior from a far-off kingdom," she said.

Rapunzel clapped her hands together excitedly. "I thought that might be the case! I'm so excited! When do we go meet her?"

Silence. "We aren't, Rapunzel."

Rapunzel frowned. "Why not?"

Their Majesties exchanged a look.

"Her kingdom is very far away, my dear," her father said. "And she's not a princess. What would be the point?"

"Well why don't we go meet their princess and then meet with her too?" Rapunzel asked, feeling that this was an eminently reasonable suggestion.

"We do not have any sort of diplomatic relationship with that country."

"Why not?"

"They do not care for outsiders. Really, Rapunzel, they are a very strange people. It is best just to leave them be."

Rapunzel let the matter drop...for the moment. But she kept hearing fragments of stories about the warrior Mulan, and with every passing day she found herself wanting to meet her even more.

Finally she went to her parents and told them that if they didn't take her to meet Mulan, she'd run away and do it anyway. As this was exactly the sort of thing she had done before, they decided it would be wisest to oblige her.

\-----------------------

  
Her parents had not exaggerated when they said the kingdom was very different. The buildings were nothing like the other kingdoms she had toured, nor were the clothes, or the food, or the local customs. Yet instead of feeling as though this place was strange, Rapunzel rather felt that all the kingdoms she had visited before were almost boring in their sameness. She undoubtedly committed many social _faux pas_ , but she was so clearly foreign and well-meaning that she was always forgiven.

But when the day finally came for Rapunzel to meet Mulan, she found herself unaccountably nervous. This was no mere princess she was going to meet (no offense to Cinderella, Briar Rose, or Snow White). Fa Mulan was a warrior. What would she think of Rapunzel? Would she find her hopelessly silly and vapid? What if Mulan didn't like her?

Rapunzel had expected to find Mulan wearing the armor of the Imperial Army, perhaps training with her sword. She was surprised to be escorted inside and introduced to a young woman in a beautiful _ruqun_. Even more surprised when that young woman bowed, her head touching the ground.

"Oh!" Rapunzel quickly dropped to her knees and did her best to mimic the gesture.

Mulan peeked up to see what Rapunzel was doing, and then shot up. "No, Princess, you shouldn't bow to me!"

"Why not?" But Rapunzel did gratefully sit up and adjust her seat. She had yet to master the art of kneeling comfortably.

"You are a princess. I am but the daughter of an honored soldier."

"But you saved your entire country!" protested Rapunzel. "All by yourself! All I've done is cry and save my boyfriend. If anyone deserves respect, it's totally you."

She felt relieved when Mulan suddenly grinned.

"I didn't do it all by myself," the young warrior said. "I had a lot of help."

"Did it involve crying magical tears?" Rapunzel asked.

"Uh...no."

"Then you're still way cooler than I am."

Mulan laughed. "It wasn't that cool. Well, no, okay, it was actually pretty cool. But you've been able to travel all over the kingdoms! I've never been outside of China."

"The travel is a recent development," Rapunzel said. "For the first 18 years of my life, I never left one small tower. ...I kind of miss it sometimes."

She didn't know what prompted this revelation, a confession that she had not dared to voice to any other person, not even Eugene. But when Mulan smiled -- a small, wistful twitch of the lips -- she knew that she had told the right person.

"I think I know how you feel," she said. "When I joined the army, a part of me was actually really excited to see the world outside of my village. There were times when I thought I could never go back to being a girl and trying to do what everyone expected of me. But when the Emperor offered me a position in his government, I realized that I missed my little world, and that I wanted to go home."

"I wouldn't ever want to go back to my tower," Rapunzel said quickly.

"But sometimes you miss it because it was safe and you knew what was expected of you."

Rapunzel sighed. " _Yes_."

"I think it's important to have a place like that," Mulan said thoughtfully. "You might have lost that place, but you can still make a new one."

"Do you think so?" Rapunzel asked.

"I do," Mulan said. "...do you know how to play chess?"

The two young women grinned.


End file.
